Guild Wars 2

So, I just found out that the Elementalist skill that summons a Fiery Greatsword does double the damage I do on my own… Am I a total scrub or is Necro dps seriously lacking? My current setup . I have Full exotic Berzerkers with Superior Divinity runes.

farmv.1204:

So, I just found out that the Elementalist skill that summons a Fiery Greatsword does double the damage I do on my own… Am I a total scrub or is Necro dps seriously lacking? My current setup . I have Full exotic Berzerkers with Superior Divinity runes.

you’re not a scrub. necromancer probably has the lowest dps in the game right now. Why? I don’t know, apparently the devs hate us.

If you don’t intend to play a conditionmancer (which still doesn’t do that good of damage) then you should reroll now while you still can, to something else.

Well, it’s a tad complex. Elementalists, when built right with the right gear, can do incredible damage. The numbers on their screen will always be twice yours. But that’s burst damage. If you pit a tanky condition necro who knows what they’re doing against an elementalist of the same skill, the necro will come out on top much of the time. Why? Look at all the utility your class gives you. You can soak up that up-front damage with your Death Shroud, then use your mobility and tankiness to run circles around the Ele while you stack bleeds and conditions that they are forced to try to get rid of rather than killing you. And you can bleed them faster than they can cleanse. If you want big numbers, may I suggest an Axes build with heavy focus on your Death Shroud? the 1 skill on DS is actually a pretty respectable nuke, especially if your bar is full. And power axes really, really hurt. Or you can use the aformentioned condition build. You won’t be getting big numbers, but you sure will be getting a lot of small ones. Your burst will be crap, but it’s probably the highest sustained AoE DPS in the game right now.

I agree, I don’t know what it is but I can have over 1k power and I may crit for 600 dmg with my daggers.

But my ranger friend with only 700 power was critting for that 10 levels ago with a subpar bow. I dunno what it is.

Elethor.2430:

I agree, I don’t know what it is but I can have over 1k power and I may crit for 600 dmg with my daggers.

But my ranger friend with only 700 power was critting for that 10 levels ago with a subpar bow. I dunno what it is.

Highest crit is a very very bad way to compare dps, or viability.

Hadri.8125:

Elethor.2430:

I agree, I don’t know what it is but I can have over 1k power and I may crit for 600 dmg with my daggers.

But my ranger friend with only 700 power was critting for that 10 levels ago with a subpar bow. I dunno what it is.

Highest crit is a very very bad way to compare dps, or viability.

I wasn’t trying to compare viability, just damage output. I know that we don’t have any damage meters (and no I don’t really want them either) but it was just odd how his basic hits and crits were higher than mine even though I had much higher power.

Elethor.2430:

I agree, I don’t know what it is but I can have over 1k power and I may crit for 600 dmg with my daggers.

But my ranger friend with only 700 power was critting for that 10 levels ago with a subpar bow. I dunno what it is.

Yes, so much yes.

When I chose Necro, it was on day 1. I didn’t know much about its strengths and weaknesses in endgame then – and how should I?

I had a ton of fun in early levels with dual dagger. That fun diminished over time. In my 40s and 50s, levelling in PvP felt like trudging through molasses. At 60 I poured everything in power and the rest in crit, bought new daggers and for a brief period, I felt like I was doing damage.

Now I’m 70. I just went to that shore area with fort trinity. I bought new daggers and armor. I feel like I don’t do any damage at all. My wife plays a ranger. When we’re in an area together and I look over to her screen, I see numbers twice as big as mine. She kills stuff way faster than me. She’s 68.

I honestly feel I made a mistake. I would so love to reroll, but I also want to play with my wife and understandably, she wants to see Orr. Rolling Necro was the bigest mistake I ever made in this game, even beats accidentally spending 2g for a 18-slot-bag-signet.

Yes, I know – double dagger. But that’s actually what I liked from the start. I was so stupid, I thought all weapons should be equally viable. For the necro, though, that doesn’t seem to be true.

I heared that conditions and epidemic seem to be the only thing viable. Only that in PvE, epidemic tends to pull every stag, cow and moa in the vincinity into the fight as well.

Currently, I don’t like my toon very much. Not at all, actually. I was hoping for the necro to be viable at 80 again but from what I read, that’s not the case, either. Or has anyone found some setup that’s decent for:

- PvE as a duo
- Eventually WvW
- Occasional dungeons

Please help.

@Phooka:

You can do fine with daggers, especially at that level. Pour 20 points into Soul Reaping mainly for the crit damage and take some Death Shroud buffs (slower drain+piercing), 20 points into Blood Magic (Siphon health on crits+20% reduced Well damage) and 30 into Spite (Life Blast grants Might+Spinal Shivers+20% more damage on does under 50% health). Take Consume Conditions for a heal. Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption and Well of Darkness as utilities. Lich Form as your elite.

You can take double daggers for this, although dagger/focus works better in my opinion. Basically, your Wells of Suffering and Corruption will bring a lot of AoE damage although it’s burst. Well of Darkness is basically five seconds of invincibility for you and your group for every melee enemy (blind spam circle) for several seconds, it’s very useful. Lich Form is Lich Form, that 1 key hurts and the knockback among other skills does not go amiss.

Finally don’t forget to use your Deathshroud. There’s another thread on the Necro section you could read, including my post there: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Death-Shroud/first#content

This won’t work so well for WvW due to dagger being a melee single target weapon, that’s it’s role. But you have a staff if necessary.

Take full Beserker’s gear for Power/Prec/Crit Damage. Throw in Divinity and Might runes for even more Crit Damage. Superior Divinity are super expensive, but 3 Major Runes of Rage and 3 Major Runes of Divinity works almost as well as 6 Superior for a cheaper price. Throw in a Sigil of Air on your main hand and maybe Signil of Earth on your offhand. Sigils for Force and Accuracy are possibly cheaper alternatives.

Enjoy :-)

Karther.7481:

@Phooka:
You can do fine with daggers, especially at that level. […]

Thanks, will try that.

Lol, don’t do daggers… it’s pitiful. It’s the worst build the necromancer has… jesus christ do these people even play necro?

Guys, a little nasty tip for dagger nacro WvWer, use “Spectral Grasp” (range is 1200) to pull the low hp guy to you and kill it with dagger while he/she figuring out “where the hell am I”. It works!

Shelledfade.6435:

farmv.1204:

So, I just found out that the Elementalist skill that summons a Fiery Greatsword does double the damage I do on my own… Am I a total scrub or is Necro dps seriously lacking? My current setup . I have Full exotic Berzerkers with Superior Divinity runes.

you’re not a scrub. necromancer probably has the lowest dps in the game right now. Why? I don’t know, apparently the devs hate us.

If you don’t intend to play a conditionmancer (which still doesn’t do that good of damage) then you should reroll now while you still can, to something else.

Jesus Christ, let people play what they want. Just because you think necros suck doesn’t mean everyone else does.

Conditions may be great for spvp and ok for pve but its just not viable in wvw; or should I say zvz. In a large group setting like that AoE wins. The conditions just dont have the time to tick before something else blows them up. This well spec is the closest thing I’ve gotten to feeling useful, but the damage is lacking. Even heavily spec’d into crit and power my wells rarely, if ever, pulse for more than 1k. For a skill that is on a 45s to 1m cd that is unacceptable. When I picked up that greatsword I swung around a few hits and was smashing people for 5k+ while raining down on them with a firestorm.

You need to remember that the well is a utility skill. Those of you mentioning the greatsword seem to have forgotten that it is an elite. Compare elites perhaps, but don’t compare the greatsword to the well.

I’m surprised Shelledfade hasn’t received more warnings or suspension on the forum O.o Such a counterproductive behavior surely deserves some spanking, its been happening on most threads, and one with his flaming comment removed too. Lack of evidence, poor conclusions, accusations and hostility, seems enough to do more harm in the community. Plenty of players waiting to get GW2.

Anyway, yes you can only compare Ele’s elite with our elite. The fiery great sword is a ‘pick up’ weapon, so they do lose their normal skills. Aside from that no real downside, which I do find that aspect slightly stronger, since we do lose our other abilities in albeit fearsome forms.

-Flesh Golem can be technically up permanently, thus if the AI reliably hits, you will probably have a sustained higher DPS than that 180sec CD flaming sword. Not to mention, its knockdown can be devastating when aimed nicely and timed properly. Of course it tanks for you, can eat condition for you, heal you etc… Also it regenerates outside combat. So before you cry about Flesh Golem, take all that into consideration before comparing.

- Plague is kind of an insane AOE tool. Once you reach a threshold of targets, you are doing more damage or apply more conditions than the Fiery great sword. You have to pick carefully what skill to use in that mode, between bleed(good damage), blind and poison (defensive with some damage), cripple and weakness (defensive and support). Although you have extra hp, you do have to be at close range, AND you lose control of all your other abilities which I find slightly unreasonable.

-Lich Form: Probably the closest skill in terms of power in a short duration. Of course it isn’t simply damage like the mage counterpart, but it does have interesting skills. In terms of numbers it might need some buffing, but at this stage, the different roles they entail is quite sufficient. A couple of its skills is AOE, so it takes skills to meet that threshold of targets for maximum potential. It has interesting utility such as the group knockback. Grim Specter ‘5’ is a fast aoe dmg, removes conditions on alies and removes boon on enemies. This is potentially the strongest spell in the Necro arsenal. If used in the right situation it could nullify someone else’s elite or other skills.

Lich form and Plague both take away your control, but I think the utility bar should remain.

SO, by no means are we that far away. Just keep in mind the role we fill is different, aoe takes skill to maximise, and burst damage isn’t everything.

Mirar.1087:

I’m surprised Shelledfade hasn’t received more warnings or suspension on the forum O.o Such a counterproductive behavior surely deserves some spanking, its been happening on most threads, and one with his flaming comment removed too. Lack of evidence, poor conclusions, accusations and hostility, seems enough to do more harm in the community. Plenty of players waiting to get GW2.

Get over it. He’s kept a civil enough tone. If anything, agitation is necessary for a healthy community.

OP, what are you trying to do with your build exactly? You have points spread everywhere and not in a good way.

Here’s a good base S/D wells build that works for outdoors and in dungeons with a few minor tweaks: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQNArYWjMaV6Zama87JApCRP9g7xFP6BxDnMA

When going into dungeons swap out bone minions for well of darkness or well of power since you’ll have other people who can finish the combo on all the dark fields you’ll be dropping. You’ll also want to swap out minion master for ritual of protection in the Blood Magic line, since you won’t be using minions in dungeons. There are more optimized builds for dungeons (axe/dagger + staff, take chilling darkness, reaper’s might in spite, unyielding blast in soul reaping and you’ll be a perma blind/chill/vuln/might stacking beast) but they tend to suffer in solo play a bit and I’ve found this to be a good compromise.

For the poster who is determined to stick with a daggers check my post here for a dagger build that has a good amount of burst damage: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Has-Anyone-Managed-to-Create-a-Viable-Dagger-Necro/first#post81310

Shelledfade.6435:

Lol, don’t do daggers… it’s pitiful. It’s the worst build the necromancer has… jesus christ do these people even play necro?

Daggers have the highest raw dmg from all the necromancer weapons. What else would you use when doing a power build? An axe? Have you actually tested this? Axe has very low attack speed.